Feast from the Fields 2011

What an amazing night. Last weekend I cooked for a fund raising dinner for 250 people at an urban charter high school with an organic farm. Most of the ingredients traveled only a few feet to arrive in the kitchen including the pig, the chicken, and nearly all of the vegetables. The honey, peaches and cheese were from other nearby farms, and only the oil, butter, flour, sugar, pasta and spices were purchased from afar. 

Another local chef, myself, and many students, teachers and kitchen staff from Common Ground High School cooked and served up this fabulous dinner. A wonderful accomplishment, a great learning experience for the students, and a real gift to the community in so many ways. The meal, the silent auction and live auction raised $40,000 for the school.

Unfortunately I do not posses the skill to cook, coordinate a meal like this AND photograph it, so the true essence of the night: enthusiastic, capable teenagers representing the diversity of our little city, cooking, cleaning, working, learning, serving, eating, and growing was not captured in photos. Jason Sobosinski from Caseus restaurant and "The Big Cheese" Food Network Show and I planned and cooked the meal. It was a fun mash-up of our two styles, and in the end it worked wonderfully. The unbelievably hard working coordinator of the event, Joel Tolman is a colleague and friend of mine: thoughtful, smart, collaborative, and an incredible force. Shannon, the new farmer for the school is working wonders with the land and supplied us with an abundance of food: cucumbers, beets, red onions, winter squash, salad greens, kale, chard, herbs, garlic, a 165 pound pig, and more than a dozen chickens.  And a big thank you goes out to Rhonda, Thea and Theresa, the Common Ground Cooks and all the students who helped to prep hundreds of pounds of produce from the farm and wash lots and lots of dishes!!!
 

Here are some snippets of the food from the night:

 

Menu

Cider Brined Slow Roasted Whole Pig

Poblano Pepper Apple Sauce

Buttermilk-Marinated Common Ground Fried Chicken

Fresh Thyme and Lemon Zest   

Mac and Beaverbrook Farms Cow & Sheep Cheese

Garlic Braised Common Ground Kales & Chards 

Common Ground Quick Pickle Red Onion &          Cucumber Salad with Basil and Tarragon

Common Ground Arugula and Mixed Greens, Roasted Delicata and Candy Roaster Squash & Shredded Beets

Roasted Scallion and Ground Pepita dressing

Beltane Farms Chevre

Warm Honey Bourbon Peach Short Cake & Homemade Creme Fraiche

Our fabulous student waitstaff for the night

 
 Scallions for the salad dressing roasting on the hot coals of the pig roasting box

 

Pickled red onions with tarragon and basil, waiting to be tossed with the cucumbers

 

The pig named "milkbottle" being brined and seasoned to go into the cook box. The students raised this pig, and many stopped by to say "hi" to it, or were fascinated to see how it would be cooked. A few students were sad, which is very understandable, but most were very interested in the process and they all knew he was being raised for food. I had the experience of raising and slaughtering a chicken once when I was a teen, and it gave me a life long appreciation and consciousness about animal rearing and the sources of meat in our country. I now only eat meat that is sustainably raised (which is more expensive and harder to find, so I eat a lot less meat than the average person).

 Thea and Jason cooking fried chicken, also raised on the farm. 

As you can see, they kept things lively in the kitchen!

I was very happy with how the salad turned out. The roasted scallions added a smoky depth to the dressing, and the ground pumpkin seeds gave it a nutty sweetness. The greens, a mix grown on the farm, had been harvested the day before, and it was topped with roasted delicata and candy roaster squashes, which can both be cooked without peeling them, which makes the prep time much quicker, and helps hold the squash together for a dish like this. To add some brightness to the dish, the beets were shredded raw using a fine shredding attachment to the food processor, and some delicious fresh chevre (goat cheese) from Beltane Farms rounded out the dish nicely.

 

Jason, as a master of all things cheese, made Mac and Cheese using a wonderful assortment of cheeses from Sankows-Beaverbrook Farm.

For dessert we wanted to use an end of summer fruit rather than the usual apples and pears of fall. The white and yellow peaches were the final harvest from near-by Drazen Orchards, a great family run orchard where they practice IPM - integrated pest management to greatly minimize the amount of pesticides and fungicides used. The peaches had to be harvested a few weeks before the dinner, and wouldn't have lasted in the fridge, so a group of students sliced and froze them on sheet pans (no need to peel them!), then transfered them to a large bag. Since they had been frozen we needed to cook them for dessert, so the were roasted with a local honey, bourbon and vanilla bean sauce.

  

The shortcakes came out great, thanks to the fabulous recipe from Caludia Flemming's 

incredible cookbook "The Last Course".

 The completed dessert: Warm Honey Bourbon Peach Shortcake with Homemade Creme Fraiche.

Creme Fraiche, a french style sour cream, is very easy to make at home, rather than buying an expensive container from the store. 

2 Tablespoons of cultured butter milk or yogurt

2 cups of heavy cream (pasteurized is better than ultrapasteurized)

1. Mix the ingredients together well. Cover with a towel and let sit out on the counter for 12 to 24 hours, until it is as thick as sour cream. It will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. For dessert it can be served straight or sweetened and whipped.It can be used in savory dishes as you would use sour cream.

I will post recipes for the complete shortcake dessert, and the salad in the near future, 

so check back soon!

And, if you live anywhere near New Haven, CT go check out Common Ground School, there are lots of opportunities to visit during open farm days and festivals!

Roasted Tomato Sauce

Between the heat of late summer, bugs, and hurricane Irene, my garden has seen better days. While September is prime harvest season on a farm, the offerings from my backyard are meager this year, with one exception. The tangle of tomato plants in one raised bed, generally referred to as "the tomato forest" managed to blow flat without snapping, and so survived the hurricane. The cherry tomato plants are prolific, and just when I think I've picked the last of the fruits, another wave of tomatoes arrives. This year I have Sungolds (which yield a ton of sweet orange cherry tomatoes), a red standard cherry tomato, large heirloom Brandywines for slicing, and some seeds from last year called michael's wedding that sprouted up around the garden, and I let a few of them grow (those are tiny red tomatoes  that spit when picked, so I didn't buy them again, but they are fine for eating right off the vine).

Every few days we pick a bowlful, about a pint of cherry tomatoes, often they are eaten in the distance between the garden and the kitchen door and don't make it into a meal. With the weather turning colder last week, a warm dinner was on my mind.  Simple and quick, I boiled some whole grain pasta, and started slicing the cherry tomatoes in half for roasting. I then turned my attention to finely chopping a large amount of onion and garlic, which cooked at a low heat in plenty of olive oil until they were tender and fragrant. The tomatoes were added, sauteed for a moment, then stuck under the broiler to blister and release their juices. The rest of the dinner came together mostly as an after thought; some spinach leaves got tossed in with the pasta and black beans were added for protein. I'd had illusions of fish joining this meal rather than beans: some canned salmon left over from our hurricane provisions, but fish from a can just wasn't doing it for me that night. Lastly, I snagged a handful of marjoram on my way out the backdoor, tossed it with the pasta, and we had a meal. My kids complained that this was not what they thought I meant when I said we were having pasta with tomato sauce for dinner, but they grudgingly ate it anyway, and I was content with the tangy juices of the fresh tomatoes, and the olive oil, thickly laced with sweet onion and garlic. Nothing fancy or magnificent about it, just a simple good meal.

 

Roasted Tomato Sauce

4 servings

1pint cherry tomatoes or 3/4 pound other tomatoes

1 large onion

4 cloves garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

any fresh or dry herbs you like such as marjoram, basil, oregano, thyme, mint etc...

1. Finely dice onion and mince garlic. Saute onion in olive oil over low heat in a large wide skillet. Season well with salt and pepper. When tender, add garlic. Saute until garlic is fragrant, do not brown.
2. While onions are cooking, slice cherry tomatoes in half, or cut larger tomatoes into a large dice.  Set oven to broil on high.
3. When onion and garlic mixture is very tender, add tomatoes and toss to coat with oil.  Place under the broiler and cook until tomatoes are blistered and browned on edges. Remove from oven and toss with pasta and herbs, adding any ingredients you like: spinach, zucchini, beans, fish, etc...a fine grating of cheese is always good too.  Enjoy!

 What are you making with the end of summer produce?

Live Food

Live Food.
If your mind conjured an image of you biting into a live fish, it's tail flapping water in your face, you can relax. When I talk about live food I mean plant based food that has the energy used to grow itself still inside of it. I know this might sound hokey, but compare a fresh green bean to one from a can, or think about how good a recently picked carrot is compared to one that's been sitting in your fridge for 2 weeks. 

Live food is a little different from raw food, which may be uncooked, but not "living". As an example, an almond is raw if it has not been roasted, but an almond is a seed, and if you soak it in water over night it will start the process of sprouting and starting to grow into an almond tree, this makes it live, not just raw. I often hear myself telling my kids they need to eat something fresh so they can get  "growing energy from their food", that they need to grow their own bodies. I like thinking about food this way, rather than just telling people to "eat their vegetables" I try to focus on eating enough fresh live food to balance out all the rest of the food in my diet. (Check out this fun recipe for Almond Milk using "live" almonds.

As for me, well I love carbs for breakfast. Toast, cereal, muffins, scones are all high on my list of favorite early morning eats. The thing is, if I eat too much of them I get tired. This summer during my dance camp vacation, I discovered a wonderful new breakfast treat that walks a perfect line between carbohydrate and live food, making it better balanced once it is digested, so I feel great after eating it, not ready for a nap. 

Live Museli, you are my new favorite breakfast!

Credit to one of the great Dance New England cooks (not sure which cook though...)

Live Museli

Makes 4 servings

1 Cup  oat groats

1/4 Cup  raw sunflower seeds

1/4 Cup  raw pumpkin seeds

1/4 Cup  raisins

1/4 Cup raw almonds

Fresh fruit such as peaches, plums, apples, pears or berries - (about 2 peaches or apples and or one cup of berries)

1. Place all ingredients except for fresh fruit into a bowl or pot. Fill the bowl or pot with water, about two inches above the grains. Cover with a towel or pot top and let sit over night or for 6-12 hours. 

2. Drain off the water. Scoop about 1/2 a cup of the live grain/seed mixture into a bowl. Add some cut up fresh fruit, yogurt and honey are also nice additions if that sounds good to you.

note: I didn't have any almonds when I made this batch, but it is so much better with them!!

This breakfast always leaves me feeling satisfied and energized. I hope you enjoy it too!

Tortilla Pizzas and TV

I've been avoiding it for years, but finally did it, I braved the TV cameras, and did a cooking spot for Television! And you know, it really wasn't so bad, I'm not sure what I was so nervous about. They asked me to do a segment on cooking for kids, and there was one recipe in particular that I knew would be great. It is simple and invented itself out of pure necessity and hunger:

Chef Tagan Engel : wtnh.com

Picture this:

I'm tired after a long day of working on multiple food related projects and trying to find funding to pay myself (stressful to say the least). I pick up kid #1 from school giving him a big hug and a snack, go to another school to pick up kid #2 who is finishing snack. We arrive home, both kids are tired and fussy, and despite the fact that they have both eaten a snack within the past hour, they are seriously hungry and not afraid to let me know it. This is not one of those good nights that I preach about where I've managed to have some leftovers or bits and pieces of a meal like steamed broccoli, or cooked whole wheat pasta in the fridge that I could use to throw dinner together. On this night, my cabinets are nearly bare, and I have to get creative. I do have a few good staples in the house: whole wheat flour tortillas (I keep extra ones in the freezer), a block of extra sharp cheddar cheese (the generic one is cheaper and tastes great), a can of black beans, some frozen peas, corn and green beans.  And so, Tortilla Pizzas were born!

Rather than plopping my kids in front of a video, like I often do to get dinner ready, I decide to have them help cook. They wash up, drag stools noisily across the kitchen floor and start sprinkling veggies and beans over the tortillas. I hand them some thin slices of cheddar cheese, which I make with a vegetable peeler, to top off the veggies, and we put the "pizzas" into a 450 degree oven, until the  cheese is bubbling and brown. We cut the tortillas into wedges and dinner is served.

It would have been great with a dollop of yogurt, lettuce or guacamole, none of which I had that night, but I settled for a few drops of good hot sauce, and my two very hungry kids dug in with pleasure. They'd helped cook themselves a delicious, nutritious and satisfying dinner. 10 minutes of work, less than $5 dollars worth of ingredients for all three of us, and a heck of a lot more nutritious than eating out. Now that's my kind of "fast food"!!!

My boy helping out with the cooking demo, he was so excited!

Tortilla Pizzas
4 Whole wheat flour tortillas or 6 corn tortillas
6 oz Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese (block, not shredded)
1 can Beans*-  rinsed and drained
2 cups Vegetables of your choice, fresh or frozen: spinach, corn, peas, peppers, broccoli, etc.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

1. Line 2 baking sheets with foil (optional) and rub with oil. Place tortillas on the baking sheet in a single layer.
2. Top tortillas with beans and vegetables. Leave some space between the toppings so the cheese can melt down into them and get crispy and delicious.
3. Using a vegetable peeler, slice long thin strips of cheese off of the block. This technique allows you to use less cheese than cutting with a knife, and is easier than cleaning a grater. Top each tortilla with a single layer of cheese. Place pans in the oven until cheese is melted and browned, about 5-7 minutes. 
4. Finished tortillas can either be sliced in triangular wedges like a "pizza" or folded into quesadillas or tacos. The tacos work especially well with the corn tortillas: top them with a dollop of yogurt, some shredded lettuce and hot sauce. Salsa, pickled onions and guacamole are also great additions. 

          Some great combinations are: 
          black bean, corn, broccoli
          spinach, tomato, black bean
          red bean, peppers, corn, spinach
          or for something a little different try: turkey, apple, broccoli and cheddar
* Canned beans are easy and part of my life as a busy parent, but I often cook dry beans which are much cheaper, delicious and easy if I plan ahead. Try this recipe for the basics on working with dry beans, it's easier than you think! I often make a big pot and freeze individual portions in bags or containers so they are easy to pull out of the freezer when I need a quick meal.

Please leave any comments below! 

Summer Coming to an End

Sorry for my absence over the past few weeks. I was getting some much needed R&R with my family in the woods. We spent a week at the wonderful dance community I wrote about last summer in this post. It's where I got my first experience cooking in a large commercial kitchen when I was just a youngster.

We ate well this year, tons of vegetables and huge salads at lunch, warm tasty vegetarian fare for dinner, plenty of vegetarian protein (beans, eggs, nuts, tofu, yogurt) and there seemed to be more dessert than I remember from past years. It was fun to spend a few hours back in this great communal kitchen again, lending a hand with recipe sizing and altering for gluten free or vegan recipes, transforming leftovers into new meals and chatting it up with the cooks and friends. 

I feel at home in a big kitchen cooking large quantities of food, and wish there was a kitchen like this where I live during the rest of the year. I read a quote by a someone recently about how it is a genetic tribute to her Jewish ancestry that she gets such satisfaction from cooking large quantities of food and feeding whole communities....let's just say I can relate to that.

I have about half a dozen partially written blog posts waiting in the wings and a fall season packed with exciting food policy initiatives, cooking events and urban gardening projects, not to mention my first ever TV cooking segement, so check back soon for more tasty bits.

Read the complete blog post about cooking at dance camp by clicking here

Hope you all had a great summer and are surfacing well from the hurricane.

Tagan

Peaches Are Back

Heaven for me would be an hour or two of fruit picking every day. Just the thought of it makes my heart swell.  I can hear the fruit ripening on the trees beyond the city limits. I can almost feel the soft flesh of the fruit on the trees, a gentle pressure under my finger tips just before it is plucked from the branch. There is something addictive about fruit picking, and whatever it is I am hooked.

There is so much to say about fruit picking that I could ramble on for hours. However, since I'm trying to get my family out to the woods for some R&R, dancing and peace, you'll have to settle for one good seasonal recipe, and wait till I get back for more fruit picking rantings. In New England right now, blueberries are finishing, and peaches, plums, raspberries and summer apples are just getting started. Go to  www.pickyourown.org for info on where and what to pick in your area.

Here's a link to my Peach & Raspberry Pie from last summer
And, last night I made an easy Peach Buttermilk "Ice Cream" by blending, buttermilk, light brown sugar, fresh peaches, and a few leaves of fresh lavender (optional). Pour it into an ice cream maker and enjoy! well, there, see I ranted anyway.....

Roasted Corn and Peach Salad 
with Tarragon and Basil

3 Ears of Corn
3 peaches, cut into a small dice
Scallion, red onion, or chives
3 sprigs of Basil,  leaves finely chopped
1 sprig of tarragon finely chopped
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Shuck corn. Roast over an open flame on a grill or stove top, turning until it is browned on all sides. Cut corn from the cob.
2. Toss all ingredients together in a bowl and let sit for 15 minutes before serving. adjust seasoning as desired. 

This salad can be used to top off grilled meats, fish or tofu, it is also delicious over lettuce with some lentils or a hard boiled egg added for protein. Enjoy!

Pesto, Food Allergies and a Quick Celebratory Meal

This meal, including dessert, fed two families of four, with 4 food allergies/sensitivities between them (wheat, dairy, eggs, meat); there were plenty of leftovers, and it only took about 35 minutes to pull together.
Yes really.

Here's how it went down: 

1. Boiled water for pasta (large one for wheat, small for rice pasta)

2. Set french lentils in a pot covered with a few inches of water, a pinch of salt and a slice of onion. boiled till tender. 

3. Placed eggs in a pot to boil.

4. Made "ice cream" base - put raspberries, banana, coconut milk, brown sugar in a blender, pureed. Poured into ice cream maker.

5. Wheat linguini entered the pot. 

6. Garlic, basil, walnuts, miso go into the blender to make a dairy free pesto, and you'd never know it!

7. Drained pastas.

8. Tossed pasta with pesto. (left some plain for picky kids)

9. Pulled already washed lettuce from the fridge.

10. Sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, topped salad and pasta.

11. Put finished ice cream into a container in the freezer to hold for dessert.

12. Pulled homemade (but already made) garlicy salad dressing from the fridge.

13. Enlisted our friends who were waiting to eat, to peel the eggs. 

14. Sat down, gave thanks, ate.

Now please don't think that I cook like this every night. I am a working mother with two kids and a lot of extra responsibilities. But, food is a priority, as is feeding my friends and neighbors at impromptu dinners, so when I can muster the energy to throw together a whirlwind dinner party, I do it (especially if it is a cute boy's 2nd birthday, and our dearest neighbors are leaving for a year abroad). It helped that I had a big bag of lettuce from my garden already washed, I'd bought a bunch of basil earlier that day, and I actually had a whole dozen eggs in the house. The rest were staples and pantry items I try and keep in my house: pasta, lentils, frozen fruit, low fat coconut milk, nuts, miso, bananas, homemade salad dressing. 

This was a meal of simple parts, but when you tossed it all together, it felt much more glamorous and delicious. And the raspberry ice cream, well that was just a bonus prize at the end of a very good day.

Disclaimer: I was able to focus and cook this meal quickly because my kids were outside being watched by our guests. And, let me say that there was a lovely mess to clean up in the kitchen after this whirlwind of cooking, but it was worth it!



Pesto ( the non-dairy version)
miso makes a wonderful substitution for Parmesan cheese if you need to make a non-dairy pesto, or are out of good cheese. White miso has a more subtile flavor than darker miso, and won't muddle the pesto color.
 

1 large bunch basil large stems removed (about 3 cups picked)
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cup miso paste (white if you have it)
1/3 cup olive oil (or just enough to get it moving in the blender)
salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients, except oil in a food processor or blender. Puree until smooth, slowly adding oil to help the mixture blend. Scrape the sides of the bowl down, taste and adjust the salt and pepper. Remember that you need to make the pesto a little saltier than you want in the end, because the flavor will be dispersed once it is tossed with the pasta. You can make pesto using a mortar and pestle as well, just chop your ingredients first, crush the garlic with salt to create a paste, then add the walnuts and pound, then the basil, miso and oil, season to taste and enjoy.

Have you been making any interesting pestos this year? Please comment below.

Grocery Shopping in the Backyard - Garden Update July 2011

There is almost nothing as satisfying to me as walking out my backdoor and harvesting a weeks worth of produce, at almost no cost. Lettuce, cucumbers, green beans, zucchini, summer raspberries, tomatoes and herbs, all abundant and ready for picking in my backyard urban garden. Since we built our raised beds last year, there have been very few costs associated with growing food this year; a few bags of nutrients to amend the soil, some pouches of seeds, and a little bit of (pleasurable) work every few days. We didn't spend more than $75 and have gotten a whole lotta return on our investment! 

(check out one of the more bountiful evening harvests from this month, below)

Beyond just the money we save, the impact that it has on my children, and the neighborhood kids who stop by to munch is unquestionable. They love the fresh vegetables, and enjoy picking them too (notice my son hugging the tomato plant, he actually told me to wait to take the picture so he could do that...) It doesn't get much better than this.

In recent years, the urban gardening and local food movement have been largely associated with middle or upper middle class white folks. This should not, and need not be the case. Growing food used to be a necessity for poor people, but with urbanization, the establishment of housing projects, and generations of knowledge being lost, both about growing and cooking food, well, it is going to take some work to bring this process back into the lives of the general public, but it is happening now across the country, and will continue on, I have no doubt.

I recently attended an event at Common Ground High School where I spoke with a parent of one of the students. She said she now grows food at home, inspired by her son. For every school garden or urban farm there are dozens of families who will start growing their own food. To me, that is reason enough to get involved.

For information on a few great urban farming and gardening organizations you can check out:

Growing Power - Milwaukee, WI
Nuestras Raices - Holyoke, MA
The Food Project - Lincoln, MA
Edible Schoolyard - Berkeley, CA + more
Added Value - Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn Grange - Brooklyn, NY
Grow New Haven - New Haven, CT
New Haven Farms - New Haven, CT

Are you growing anything this season? Leave a comment below.
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